(View west from the summit of Camas Point, down the full length of North Lost Horse Canyon and into the abyss of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness complex, one of the largest roadless areas in the United States.)
On Friday morning I sent out a flurry of texts seeing who wanted to go skiing, but since I had not heard from anyone by the end of the work day, and since I was feeling tired, and since it had not snowed in a while, and since it was at that moment cloudy, I started thinking about a small day to someplace I already knew pretty well. But Mo texted as I was making dinner: well how about Camas?
(Upper Camas, after all was said and done.)
Camas is a decent goal for a day of skiing, with skinning from the car, good vertical, and pleasing scenery; even better, while I’ve heard a lot about the mountain and spent plenty of time looking at it, I’ve never been. I met Mo at 7, Ted drove her Tacoma in 4 lo to 4,700 feet, we met the other half of our group at the turnaround, and were skinning by 9.
(First few turns from the summit: not bad. The Bitterroot Valley near Hamilton is about 5,000 vertical feet below.)
Turns out I was mostly right about the snow. Though we had spectacular clear skies and it was not too cold, after the initial 10 turns from the summit we were met with wind buff and a variety of semi-supportable crusts. Probably the best snow of the day was found on the kiddie slopes above Kidney Lake.
(Traversing to find softer snow.)
On the drive home I talked to Mo. Today, in fact, she begins a multi-week process of taking written and oral exams which, once she passes, will allow her to be called a “PhD candidate”. (Her beau Ted, I believe, has a master’s.) Missoula probably has more opportunity for ecological-type PhDs than most towns its size, but that’s not saying a lot. She and Ted said they did not want to leave Montana, or at least the Northern Rockies. So I posed the question I sometimes think about: what if the University of Kansas City called and offered a sweet job and tons of money? (Actually, I have no idea if there is such a thing as the University of Kansas City; I just made that up because Kansas City sounds in every practical way the opposite of Montana.) No way, they both said practically in unison.
(After a short scramble from the summit proper, getting ready to descend.)
You certainly pay a premium to live in a place like Missoula. Most people understand that pretty well and made the choice accordingly. In the pursuit of passport stamps and powder turns Laura and I made decisions that will have a lifetime impact on our earning potential. Then again, we got the passport stamps and the powder turns, and skiing Camas is a decision I can make the night before while making dinner. Anyway, something to think about.
Here's a picture of a sleeping baby:
If what you really want is all-Cooper-all-the-time, see my other blog
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